The Norwegian account of Hacos expedition against Scotland, A.D. MCCLXIII | Page 6

him; he came in the ship with Bishop Thorgil. King Haco desired him to follow his banner as he should do. But King John excused himself. He said he had sworn an oath to the Scottish King, and held of him more lands than of the Norwegian Monarch; he therefore entreated King Haco to dispose of all those estates which he had conferred upon him. King Haco kept him with him some time, and endeavoured to incline his mind to fidelity. Many laid imputations to his charge. King Haco indeed had before received bad accounts of him from the Hebrides; for John Langlife-son came to the King, while he was sailing west from Shetland, and told him the news that John King of the Hebrides, breaking his faith, had turned to the Scottish Monarch. King Haco, however, would not believe this till he had found it so.
During King Haco's stay at Gudey an Abbot of a monastery of Greyfriars waited on him, begging protection for their dwelling, and Holy Church: and this the King granted them in writing.
Friar Simon had lain sick for some time. He died at Gudey. His corpse was afterwards carried up to Kintire where the Greyfriars interred him in their Church. They spread a fringed pall over his grave, and called him a Saint.
About this time men came from King Dugal, and said that the Lords of Kintire, Margad,[64] and Angus,[65] (also proprietor of Ila), were willing to surrender the lands which they held to King Haco; and to order their dependants to join him. The King answered, that he would not lay waste the peninsula, if they submitted on the following day before noon; if not he gave them to understand he would ravage it. The messengers returned. Next morning Margad came and gave up every thing into the King's power; a little after Angus arrived and likewise did the same. The King then said, that, if they would enter into articles with him, he would reconcile them with the King of Scotland. On this they took an oath to King Haco, and delivered hostages. The King laid a fine of a thousand head of cattle on their estates. Angus yielded up Ila also to the King; and the King returned Ila to Angus, upon the same terms that the other Barons in the Hebrides enjoyed their lands; this is recorded in the Ravens-ode.
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Our Sovereign, sage in Council, the imposer of tribute, and brandisher of the keen Falchion directed his long galleys thro' the Hebrides. He bestowed Ila, taken by his troops, on the valiant Angus the generous distributor of the beauteous ornaments of the hand.[66]
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Our dareful King that rules the monsters of the deep,[67] struck excessive terror into all the regions of the western ocean. Princes bowed their heads in subjection to the cleaver of the battered helm; he often dismissed the suppliants in peace, and dispelled their apprehensions of the wasteful tribes.
South in Kintire there was a Castle held by a Knight who came to wait on King Haco, and surrendered the fortress into his hands. The King conferred this Castle upon Guthorm Backa-kolf.
We must next speak of that detachment of the Army, which the King had sent towards the Mull of Kintire to pillage. The Norwegians made a descent there. They burnt the hamlets that were before them, and took all the effects that they could find. They killed some of the inhabitants; the rest fled where they could. But, when they were proceeding to the greater villages, letters arrived from King Haco forbidding them to plunder. Afterwards they sailed for Gudey to rejoin King Haco, as is here said.
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The openers of gushing wounds, undaunted of soul, proceeded in the paths[68] of the famed Getis,[69] from the south round Kintire. Our heroes, rousers of the thundering tempest of swords, glutted the swift, sable-clad birds of prey in Scotland.
The wind was not favourable, King Haco, however, made Andrew Pott go before him south to Bute, with some small vessels, to join those he had already sent thither. News was soon received that they had won a fortress, the garrison of which had capitulated, and accepted terms of the Norwegians. There was with the Norwegians a sea-officer, called Rudri.[70] He considered Bute as his Birthright; and because he had not received the Island of the Scotch he committed many ravages, and killed many people; and for that he was outlawed by the Scottish King. He came to King Haco, and took the oaths to him; and with two of his brothers became his subjects. As soon as the garrison, after having delivered up the strong-hold, were gone away from the Norwegians, Rudri killed nine of them, because he thought that he owed them no good will. Afterwards King Haco reduced the island, as is